Russia Intensifies Attacks on Ukraine’s Strategic Port City Odesa

Darwin, 23 December:

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa, a key strategic hub in the Black Sea.

According to a report by BBC on Tuesday, consecutive missile and drone strikes in recent days have caused widespread power outages across the region and put Odesa’s critical maritime infrastructure at serious risk.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba stated that Russia is conducting systematic, sustained attacks in the Odesa region. Last week, he warned that the main focus of the war may be shifting toward Odesa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the ongoing strikes aim to isolate Ukraine from maritime logistics and commercial trade routes. “Russia is deliberately attempting to cripple Ukraine’s sea-dependent economic capabilities,” he said.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened to cut Ukraine’s access to the sea in retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s “Shadow Fleet” tankers in the Black Sea. The “Shadow Fleet” refers to hundreds of tankers used to transport oil while evading Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

On Monday evening, regional authorities reported a new attack targeting Odesa’s port infrastructure. A civilian ship was damaged in the strike, and more than a dozen containers carrying flour and cooking oil were destroyed in a massive fire.

Last week, a ballistic missile strike in the Pivdennyi port area east of Odesa killed at least eight people and injured over 30 others. Earlier in the week, another attack killed a woman traveling in a car with her three children and temporarily severed Odesa’s only bridge connecting Ukraine with neighboring Moldova.

In response, President Zelensky indicated that a new air force commander will soon be appointed for the Odesa region, following the dismissal of the outgoing commander, Dmytro Karpenko, last weekend.

Odesa has always been a vital economic hub for Ukraine and is the country’s third-largest city after Kyiv and Kharkiv. Its strategic importance has grown further, as other ports in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Mykolaiv have become inaccessible due to Russian occupation.